Telangana campaign takes new turn, 37 Cong MLAs resign

Hyderabad/New Delhi, Jul 4: The pro-Telangana campaign today (Jul 4) assumed new dimensions with 37 ruling Congress MLAs, including four ministers, and 28 TDP MLAs from the region resigning their membership of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

In Delhi, seven Congress MPs, who had planned to resign from the Lok Sabha, did not keep their scheduled meeting with Speaker Meira Kumar who waited for some time before leaving her chamber.

Four Andhra Pradesh ministers K Jana Reddy, J Geeta Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy submitted resignations from the membership of state Assembly today demanding immediate creation of Telangana state.

They submitted their resignations to Assembly Deputy Speaker at 12 noon. The Congress has 50 MLAs from the region in the 294-member assembly.

As many as 28 Telugu Desam Party MLAs from Telangana submitted resignation from their posts demanding creation of a separate state. Three Congress MLAs, including a rebel, too submitted their resignations on the same issue.

The TDP legislators met Andhra Pradesh Assembly Deputy Speaker Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and submitted their resignations en masse.

Five other TDP MLAs from Telangana could not submit their resignations as they were in the US to attend the Telugu Association of North America conference.

PTI